The Eternal Question: Did God Create Baseball?

Dividing the game into nine innings was brilliant. The result is a contest usually lasting about two-and-a-half hours. Perfect. The short breaks between half-innings provide convenient times for refreshing, replenishing, and relieving. Perfect. The game is played until it has finished its natural course. There is no ticking clock. Perfect.

Creative Options

The originator of the game was wise enough to leave some of the framework to the individual ball clubs in order to express their own creativity: the depth of the outfield, the dimensions of foul territory, the orientation of the field with regard to the prevailing wind, etc.

This generosity kept the integrity of the game intact while allowing the construction of some of our most beloved and unique ballparks. That was a perfect touch!

The Human Element

Like most other sports, it was left to imperfect humans to govern the playing of the game on the field. This was fitting, since all of sport is centered around the human activities of participation, spectation, and conversation. We like to think the umpires do the best they can in staying objective and neutral.

However, it's those "judgment calls" which often give us our highest or lowest emotional spikes in a particular game. As fans, would we be nearly as fulfilled if every close play were decided by the all-seeing "instant replay?" In the case of the human element, may we say the imperfect has contributed to the perfect?

To answer the eternal question, I did some research in hopes of discovering the origin of baseball. I was expecting to find references to Abner Doubleday and Cooperstown or ancestral ties to cricket or rounders.

While those names were mentioned, I was mildly shocked to find there is no definitive evidence that any person is responsible for today's game. The evolutionary links to games of the past are cloudy as well.

Simply put, it's a mystery.

The more I thought about it, the more it dawned on me: this is perfect! Baseball and the universe—such splendid entities. Precision and randomness, predictability and happenstance, order and chaos.

And baseball, like the heavens above, begs that haunting question...

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